Monday, December 6, 2010

1000 Gifts for Today



So many wonderful gifts to share today...

  • the first clean, white, ground-covering snow of the season
  • crisp, clear, still, sparkling air
  • superfans and silliness at high school basketball games
  • visits with cousins
  • the pure joy of a simple BIG hill and new snow
  • making birthday cake - from scratch
  • the gift, 16 years ago, of becoming a mother to one of the most amazing girls in the world
  • the warm, inviting scent of Indian food simmering on the stove
  • letting go of *my* ideas of a perfect day and letting it happen
  • being stunned and awe-struck by the beauty and complexity of my children

Friday, December 3, 2010

One Last Christmas

Sometimes, it isn't about the presents at all.  It's about Love.  And community.  And about celebrating Life.

This is a must-see video.  Just make sure you have tissues handy.  Matthew West, one of my favorite contemporary Christian artists, wrote this song in honor of a family who lost their little boy too soon, and the gift that his community gave to him just before he went to play with Jesus.



It is in moments like this that the Christmas miracle interweaves itself with Easter's joy.  The coming of the Babe that came to give his life, who came to redeem the suffering, the pure wrongness of the death of a child.  This little boy shouldn't have died.  It wasn't meant to be that way.  This certainly isn't what God intended for his parents.  But the gift of that baby in the manger reminds us that God so loved the world...  After all, He knows the heartbreaking soul-ache of this kind of loss.  And He gave His Son so that we might live, and so that, one day, these parents might be re-united with their child, and the world will be made new again.

So, as we celebrate the Miracle this year, let us all take time to ponder the Sacrifice, and be thankful, joyful, and overwhelmed by Grace.